Starting the game - build advice?

[woodsparrow]

So...I haven't played this game since 2015, according to steam. I had about 30 hours. I remember playing a tinker/crossbow build I guess? Never made it much past Depot A if I remember correctly.

I'm just going to play on normal - a lot of people say 'you can beat the game with anything on normal', but I'd like to smooth things out a bit more than just riding the idiot train all the way home, you know?

Been looking around, and it seems a high dex, high int, no con build with psi empathy is kind of the go-to.

Am I likely to screw myself on normal if I just do that, without going to the hammerer build? Just do pistols, throwing, some crafting, and kind of mess around? I generally like to see as much content in a game as possible on one playthrough. But I also don't find it very fun to alt-tab and go 'ok, the build said I need to spend these points at this level here' every level. On the flip side, most people seem to say that if you don't follow a build at all you won't finish the game on your first run, and I'd really like to do that.

Normally I like to play around with crafting, lockpick/hack type characters, which to me says high dex/int, which I thought would work well with pistols too. I'm OK with using stealth but I'd love to not have to start every encounter stealthed without fail.

Can I run normal with a different pistol, or do I need the hammerrer to make it through as a pistol build? Same question for psi-empathy I guess. I see why everyone takes it, for that bonus AP skill. Just feels kind of meh to take an entire feature but only use one aspect.

[whalecactus]

No Con is fine if you don't mind reloading saves a lot, but even putting 5 in con at the start will be enough to let you live after stepping on random traps or stealthed enemies. You don't need dex for crafting and you only need a few points in INT to get better crafted gear. In general you should find the core stat that'll contribute to your damage (Perception/strength/dex/will/etc), and pump that a lot. putting a good amount into lockpicking and hacking is reccomended as there's tons of locked shit everywhere and you'll have a much easier time navigating if you aren't running a tank build. If you want to run stealth, you'll generally have to start combat stealthed. There's a feat that lets you re-stealth midcombat but that's unlocked later. You don't need any specific pistol, you can do fine with most any pistol you find or craft as long as the damage is decent. Psi-empathy for the extra AP is just to min-max, it's not remotely required to beat the game. Just popping adrenaline's is good enough. Only two major things for character building is to pick a way to do damage (guns/melee/psi) and generally stick to pumping the relevant stat and taking relevant feats for the weapon you use. The other is picking either high CON or high AGL as your preferred means of staying alive. I definetly don't reccomend playing a character with no health, or evasion and dodge unless you really know what you're doing.

[woodsparrow]

Thanks.

I was looking around some more, and ran across the zoom and boom build here, which looks quite fun.

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=8908.0

Would you have any advice on running it in normal? High agility, high perception. Low mostly everything else. Maybe flip agi/per to 13 and move con and intel up by one?

Or keep con at 3, and skip psi empathy, since it gives a 20% decrease to health? I'd miss out on some abilities he said were pretty useful though. Not sure how critical they would be on normal mode. Plus I don't love the idea of needing all the crafting boosts plus a house etc, just to craft.

I know it's a pretty big swing from 'int/dex gunslinger', just ran across it after I posted and it also seemed interesting.

[harperfan7]

A simple functional xbow build is 7 in agi, dex, and int, max perception, minimal everything else.

[woodsparrow]

After a bit of reading, I'm torn between three builds:

1) a modified version of the shotgun build. I'll go 5 in strength/dex/con, 8 agility & perception, 6 intel, and 3 will. I'll skip psi empathy entirely.

Gives me 40 points per level, I'll put 5-10 in guns/throwing per level, then split the rest across dodge, evasion, stealth, hack, lock, all the technology, and merchantile up to about 60.

I'll do Nimble then hit and run, then sixth shell. Not sure about level 4, but at level 6 I'll take leading shot.

I'll bump agility to 10 with levels 4 and 8 to get blitz by level 10, then put the rest of my points into perception

2) Some version of an energy weapons build - it's hard to find references on this, but I like the idea of higher int builds

3) I found a goofy LMG build that uses high int/strength/con, and playing a fixed turret sounds fun.

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10287.0